Just two days after taking part in training to combat so-called sorcery killings in Papua New Guinea, two men rescued an elderly woman who had been tortured after being accused of being a witch.

Paul Petrus and Gabriel Bak took part in a Women not Witches workshop in Mt Hagen, organised by the Seeds Theatre Company, just before Mr Bak discovered a group of young men in his village of Komkui, torturing and attempting to murder an elderly women they said was a witch.

Mr Bak called Mr Petrus in Mt Hagen, who raised the alarm with the police, and together the men convinced the group to release the woman. Mr Bak and Mr Petrus then took the woman to hospital for treatment.

"After the training we'd had with Seeds Theatre group, [Mr Bak] warned [the youths] if they burned the woman alive they would be in trouble, he said he'd go and get the police and take the woman to the hospital so that's how we went there and rescued the woman from the community there," Mr Petrus told the ABC.

Mr Petrus said the woman was initially kidnapped in Mt Hagen city by her enemies, and dumped near a cemetery the youths were "guarding".

He said the woman was in "the wrong place at the wrong time".

"She escaped from these guys that kidnapped her and she ran until she was tired, and she tried to rest but unfortunately she was resting just close to where the youths were guarding the cemetery and some of the boys got there and started torturing her," he said.

Mr Petrus confirmed the woman aroused the suspicion of the youths, because she appeared soon after a burial had been conducted, and accused her of being a witch.

"She was tortured and when we went there the guys were a bit reluctant to let the woman go and wanted her to explain why she was there," he said.

With the help of the police, Mr Petrus and Mr Bak took the woman to hospital.

"It was part of our training that we wanted to do, after the training with the Seeds Theatre group," Mr Petrus said.

Mr Petrus said he now wants to set up a dedicated rapid response group to save women suspected of witchcraft.

"That's what we're definitely aiming at and that's one of our main objectives - to be alert and to see around if there's anything then call me and a police officer and we go and intervene," he said.

Seeds Theatre group announced in an email that it is looking to strengthen Mr Petrus' rapid response team, and is seeking donations and support to set up and build capacity for the Mt Hagen-based squad.

Theatre group trains locals to fight sorcery killing

The two men were trained by the Seeds Theatre company, which is running the Women not Witches campaign, expected to engage with more than 70,000 people through the Highlands region.

Two weeks into the month-long campaign, the group gathered support from churches and community groups in their efforts to stamp out gender-based witchcraft killings.

Project manager at Seeds Theatre, Willie Doaemo said the approach of the workshops was to educate from the ground up.

"We go down to the level of the people, try to educate them on the law that is in place," he told the ABC.

"We [have] trained as many as 20 people and reach around 3,000 people, most of them have indicated their stand to win the fight against this.

"We've trained around 20 community leaders and youths ... they'll go back to their community, they'll do their own awareness and run their own training."

Though he believes the program has been effective so far, Mr Doaemo said more government support was needed to cover the entire Highlands territory.

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